A FALSE CLAIM.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 February 1922, Page 3

A FALSE CLAIM.

(Lyttelton Times.)

Curiously enough, when the facts ore considered, it is the fashion of the Reform Government, the Reform Party and the Reform newspapers to put themselves forward as “the friends of the farmer.” “This is a farmers’ Government,” Mr Massey has been known to declare on occasions. Of course, that is a wrong claim for any Prime Minister to make, since he is supposed to treat all classes of the oommulnity impartially. But let that pass. Wo shall try to explode the fallacy that the collection of opportunists now on the Treasury benches and itheir political followers can establish any reasonable grounds for being regarded as the friends of the farmers. In our view, they are the very opposite. Anyhow, Mr Massey has been Prime Minister nearly ten years, and has therefore had full opportunity to safeguard and promote the interests of the farmers.

i*it. But what is the position to-day, afi a decade of Masseyism ? What class, in more serious plight than the f: mer, meaning the farmer of the yt men class, the workirtg farmer who ay, not fortified with a large hanking { red CO ujit acquired, by years of prospero ied pastoral pursuit? Wo will not d: al d pute that the Government is partial the large landholder although even ] aly interests are now being jeopardis, ■as very gravely by a proposed disrupth lor of the meat trado But the small he fanners have suffered in a variety , 110 ways through the policy and admin et, tration of the Reformers. Land h r y. been more difficult to obtain for i as- stance. The s ub-division of large e tates so necessary to the growth of tl se - farming section of the communi: >r- has been promoted by this Govcrnmei £2 only in the most expensive way—l the purchase at high prices of lan for settlement with the result that s 1 called “value*” of all country lant iiave been forced far above an eci nomi c level. The advent of the G 1 >1- vernment into the land market wit ,ic millions of pounds to spend on ti; al purchase of estates has benefited th e. few large owners that sold, but th has been at the expense of all th rest of the farmers. The principal economic disorder c the day. in New Zealand, is the hig price or farm lands. This was brougl >a about through an orgy of speculatioj is in which the Massey Government wa a the arch sinner. As a eonstequenci fictitious “values” were created ii respect of all c ountry lands, whethe ; they were concerned in the speculatioi J or not, until, as everybody knows win j knows anything, the average farmer ii | suffering very gravely from tlie seriotu j effects of over-capitalisation. Then j the Government has no money, or pros fosses to have no money for public 0 i wc/rktii so urgently need to pnovide access v i the handmaid of settlement. Tho Go- ‘; vernment is taxing the farmer, directly > and indirectly, to an extent that is i cruel in view of all the conditions. He ’ ; is taxed, for instance, grievously j through the railways, by increased j freights and reduced services. He is j taxed through fictitious values, through : the lowered purchasing power of m°n- . ey largely caused by high taxation, due i in turn, ,to reckless administration, j What the farmers as a class really j need especially in their present trou- ; hies is a Government that will carry out the splendid policy of the Liberals The Liberals first attacked land monopoly so that thousands of new farmers were brought into existence. Then they s absolutely created the dairying industry by Act of Parliament and by sympathetic administration; indeed the history of this one time insignificant and now great factor in the prosperity of the Dominion is a monument to the sagacity of tlie Liberal Party and to its courage. Then the Liberals established the system of cheap money through the Advances Department which unquestionably has enabled thousands m people to take up land and become successful farmers. All through this period of assistance to the farmers—and it 1 was a long period—the Liberals were fought at eicry turn by the Masseyites who resisted every forward movement. The Liberals are the real friends of | tho farmers for the reason that they ! are the friends of all the people. Tlie farmers are in many ways, the most important section of the people; they are “the backbone of thq country” bocause New Zealand is essentially a country of primary production. Tho Liberals risked the displeasure of the large landowners in order to multiply the number of small ones. The Reformers are, on the contrary, tho particular friends of the rich squatters. As for the great body of fanners in New Zealand, however, they are suffering to-day, and suffering keenly, tho direct effects of an Administration which has always subordinated their interests to those of tho influential few. A contrast between the assistance afforded to the farmers, as to all classes, by the Liberals in those memorable years from 1890 to 1912 and the state of affairs that liasi culminated in present-day conditions under the Reformers exposes as a hollow sham the pretence that the latter aro “the friends of the farmer.”